Category Archives: Gilmer, Bryan

Leonard Noblac’s career as a musician peaked in the early 1980s, but he hoped that his music would again be appreciated if he just kept at it. Leaving New York City was not the best career move, but when his wife wanted to relocate to Raleigh he came with her. Once the marriage broke up, Leonard became unhinged. As this novel opens, Leonard is robbing a house in a tony Raleigh suburb, starting on a string of crimes that Leonard thinks of as “a perfect jazz albums of burglaries.” To Leonard, the McMansions of Rocky Falls represent all that is wrong with America in the 21st century–sprawl, over-consumption, soulless materialism. Jeff Davis Swaine isn’t crazy about the Rocky Falls lifestyle, but he knows who pays his bills–the clients of the Raleigh law firm that has him on staff as their chief investigator. Once Swaine is called to the scene of that first robbery (called because the homeowners would prefer that the case be handled privately), he is on the trail. Noblac knows that Swaine and the police have a line on him, but he’s a performer who has always craved the spotlight. Soon bodies–of people and pets–start to pile up.